Henry Heron: A Litter Story

Henry Heron: A Litter Story
Organizing Topic
Overview
Related Standards of Learning 1.8a, b, c
Objectives
Investigating Natural Resources
Students listen to a short story and then sequence the order of
the story’s events and predict a conclusion.
The students should be able to
• identify natural resources such as plants and animals, water, air, land, minerals, forests, and
soil;
• compare and contrast ways of conserving resources. This includes recycling, reusing, and
reducing consumption of natural resources;
• describe ways students and schools can help improve water and air quality in our
communities;
• discuss the value of parks to wildlife and to people.
Materials needed
• Six-pack plastic ring
• “Henry Heron” story (see next page)
Instructional activity
Content/Teacher Notes
Animals need food, water, air, and space. The water and the space must be clean and free of litter to
provide a safe and healthy habitat.
Introduction
Ask for a show of hands of students who have recently visited a park with a lake. Discuss the things
they saw around the lake, eventually guiding the discussion toward trash or litter they might have
seen. List all litter items the students remember seeing. Ask: Was this litter ugly there? Did it make
the park look bad? Was it dangerous to you? To other people? To animals? Guide the discussion
toward any birds the students may have seen and how the litter might hurt the birds and other
animals.
Procedure
1. Read “Henry Heron: A Litter Story” to the class, stopping in the middle to have students
predict what will happen to Henry. After finishing the story, discuss how Henry might have
felt, how the people helping Henry might have felt, and what might have happened differently.
2. Slip a large rubber band onto your thumb and little finger over the back of your hand. Ask the
students if they think it will be easy for you to remove the rubber band without using your
other hand. Demonstrate how hard this is to do. Let several or all of the students try, and
discuss how hard it is to remove the rubber band. Talk about how animals have trouble
removing items that get caught around their feet or necks since they don’t have hands and
fingers to help remove the items.

3. Show a six-pack ring, and pass it around so students can try to tear it to see how strong it is.
Tell the students that years ago when garbage was often dumped in the sea, people
recommended cutting rings before disposing of them so that they could not hurt birds and
other animals. These days trash in Virginia is recycled, put in landfills, or incinerated.
Therefore, when these rings are recycled or disposed of properly, cutting them is not
necessary.
Sample assessment
• Ask students the following questions:
° What are some examples of litter?
° How can litter be dangerous?
° What can you do to lessen the amount of litter?
Follow-up/extension
• Have students suggest their own ending to the story, or have them retell the story. Students
may also illustrate their endings.
• Have students draw a cover picture for the Henry Heron story that suggests what happens.
Resources
• Pollution Solutions: Litter Prevention Activities for Virginia Teachers. Virginia Resource-Use
Education Council. http://www.deq.state.va.us/education/polsul/homepage.html. This lesson
is adapted from this source.
• Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12. National Science Teachers Association
(NSTA). http://www.nsta.org/ostbc.
• Search for Literature: Literature for Science and Mathematics. California Department of
Education. http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/ll/ap/searchlist.asp. Web site with searchable database.
HENRY HERON: A LITTER STORY
Henry is a heron. He likes to hang out at the park’s lake. He often
stands as still as a statue and waits for minnows to swim by so he can
grab a quick snack.
Henry is a very curious heron and always explores the nooks
and crannies of the lakes and rivers he visits. One day Henry
saw something stuck in the grass near the edge of the lake. “I
wonder what that could be?,” he thought excitedly as he went closer.
“Oh, it’s only a soda can,” he sighed. “Another piece of trash
left by a lazy person. I don’t know why people can’t be neater!!”
Just as he was about to wade away, Henry saw a minnow
skimming through the water. He did exactly what comes naturally
to herons. His head went down and he came up with the minnow
in his beak. “Yum!,” he said as he swallowed the minnow. “I love
good food.”
Then Henry noticed he had caught more than just the minnow. The minnow had gone beneath a
plastic six-pack ring, and as Henry had reached to get it, his head had gone through the ring. It
was stuck on his long neck!

Henry shook, he wiggled, he rubbed against the grass, he stuck his head into the water, but
nothing he did would remove the plastic ring. “This is terrible, horrible, awful,” Henry announced
to the world. But no one was listening. Henry gave one more long, lonely shake of this head.
Morning dawned, and Henry stretched, but was brought up short. The plastic ring pulled and
squeezed his neck, and made it very hard for Henry to breathe. Then some park visitors saw
Henry. They chased him, trying to catch him. We know they just wanted to help Henry, but all
Henry knew was that he was scared and wanted to get away. He wished he could disappear. He
flew away and landed in a nearby clearing.
After a while Henry got hungry and came out to the middle of the lake. He tried to catch some
fish, but the plastic ring kept getting in the way, or it moved and scared the minnows away. How
could he catch some fish? Henry flew to the shore, still hungry. When he got there, he was again
chased by people. This time, the people were in uniforms.
The next day Henry was tired, hungry, and terribly discouraged. He went over to the other
herons. They also chased him away. “You’re scaring all the fish away. You’re making people
chase us. You look stupid with that plastic ring thing around your neck!”
“I didn’t get it stuck on myself on purpose,” Henry said. “I tried to get it off.” But the herons just
flapped their long wings and left Henry. One of them even pecked at Henry, and you know that
had to hurt!
(Teacher Note: Stop here. Ask the students to predict what they think might happen to Henry.)
Henry was resting quietly in a cove of reeds when suddenly he was covered with a net. He
flapped and struggled, but he couldn’t get away. When hands reached for him, he snapped at
them with his long beak. The people wouldn’t give up. They finally got a good hold on Henry and
tried to calm him. They held his neck very still and clipped the plastic ring and then pulled it off.
When they released Henry, he flapped his wings and flew across the lake. Once he had calmed
down, he realized the people had helped him and had removed the plastic ring.
“Yes,” he said. “I can eat again! I can drink!” and he dipped his head into the water. “I can sleep
and eat and do almost anything!!!” Henry was so excited!
Note to teachers
It would be nice to say to the students that Henry is safe for the rest of his life, but since there is so
much litter around, that probably is not the case. Many animals never get rescued in the first place,
and those that do may get caught in litter again. Animals probably do not realize that litter is
dangerous to them, and they often do not remember what has happened to them in the past like
people do. They may even think a piece of litter looks like something interesting to eat and go after
it on purpose. We can help by always putting our trash in the right places.